FCC and ISED (née IC): First responders can now use radio systems in other country

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Jay911

Silent Key (April 15th, 2023)
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Wow, this only took yea... okay, decades...

I know all of you near-border first responders that have never ever done this before, not even once, not for a little bit, because it was illegal don'cha know, will be relieved...

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Rel...a+and+U.S.&utm_campaign=IWCE&utm_medium=email

By this Public Notice, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau) provides
guidance to U.S. public safety licensees seeking to: (1) roam into Canada with their mobile or hand-held
portable radio equipment; (2) communicate from the U.S. through base station repeaters in Canada; or (3)
host Canadian public safety licensees seeking to communicate through base station repeaters in the U.S.
Our guidance is based upon recent arrangements and understandings reached by Bureau staff with
officials from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). The licensing guidance
we provide below applies to any public safety licensee operating a Private Land Mobile Radio (PLMR)
system in any frequency band authorized under Part 90 of the Commission’s rules.

In short: (a) operate per the rules of your country and your license, and/or the rules of the system you're using's license. (b) Interop channels are interop channels, do with them what you will within the guidelines established for them in your country and these agreements.

In shorter: Talk to your cross-border first responder partners. It's okay.
 

harryshute

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Industry Canada new name

Yes very much about time. It's also good to know Industry Canada has been married and now has a new name. I'm hoping for improvements:)
 

peq387ab

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This is great news. As working in a US border county to Canada in the past, this would have came at great resource for emergencies that were along our border. I'm sure they would be happy to hear this where I use to work. Many incidents that this would of been great for. I'm glad that this will soon be a feature that can help better public safety communication among our borders. I know from experience that many volunteer fire departments from the US and Canada would mutual aid with each other, but communications would be lacking or not in place in many incidents
 

Jay911

Silent Key (April 15th, 2023)
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I know from experience that many volunteer fire departments from the US and Canada would mutual aid with each other, but communications would be lacking or not in place in many incidents

I was at a cross-border interop conference a few years ago where representatives from a number of Canadian fire departments talked about just going ahead and programming freqs from both sides of the border into their radios - both theirs and their American mutual aid partners - because operational needs were not being met and the bureaucracy was hindering them. I know from experience with the bureaucracy on my side of the border that that's not an unthinkable logical leap.

I also heard, and I have no idea how much substance there is to this rumor, that one and maybe more port of entry stations have underground cabling connecting either base stations from one country's border services to a radio system in the other, or a bridge/link from one country's rack to the other's rack, or something similar. This was because while the law (at the time I heard this) had no provisions to allow agencies in one country to use the RF radio systems of the other, if the signal was cabled and buried, as opposed to over the air, it was not a radio and thus exempt from the prohibitions of the law (or lack of permission, however you choose to perceive it).
 
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